> We have the same type of sliding glass doors in our bedroom, leading to
> the outside deck along the back of the house. We choose to put in a cat
> door that's mounted in a 8 inch wide by 7 foot high aluminum strip they
> sell in Petsmart for around $175. Although it works fine, it is
expensive,
> and it does compromise the security of the home since it prevents the
> sliding glass doors from closing all the way, and it is kind of flimsy.
I
> do believe the hole through the wall is a more elegant solution. You can
> always put in two identical cat doors....One co-planer with the inside
> wall, and one co-planer with the outside.....This would give you better
> protection against air loss, so your heating bill wouldn't be
> significantly higher. We didn't do this mainly because it is a lot of
> trouble, and we live in a low crime area. I put a large eye-screw in the
> doorjamb, so we can chain the sliding glass door across the 8 inch gap,
> and make it relatively secure.......In most sliding glass doors, you can
> lay a dowel along the base, preventing the door from being opened any
> further than any given length......IOW, you can cut the dowel so the
door
> can't be opened from the outside any further than the width of the cat
> door aluminum section. We couldn't do this, because our doors were
> installed backwards by the builder such that the thief on the outside
> could place the dowel, preventing our escape! I would try the aluminum
> device if you are in a low crime area, and the hole in the wall if you
are
> in a high crime area.
Low crime area? What's that, only one out of 100 houses get broke in or 1
out of 100 people get robbed or killed?
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